The Story of Cloud
by Alucard's Bane
Summary: What happened to cloud in between FF7 and KH? Find out here. Warning. one of my earlier works...warning.
1. Chapter 1

The Story of Cloud

By: Alucard's Bane

Disclaimer- I don own FF7

okay, this idea was given to me by a friend several years ago. About what happened to Cloud inbetween FF7 and KH. ...I know, don't say it. It's terrible...it has to be the worse one i ever wrote. I hate it.

Chapter 1:

The Revival

Cloud sat huddled against the dank wall of the Northern Crater. Things had happened since the start of his journey. Lots of them he wished never happened. A cold wind whipped up against his all ready cold body. What he wouldn't give to go join Aeris in the lifestream right now. He breathed in deeply and sighed. The events of that day passed through his mind. He was sleeping, when something hit his head and bounced into his lap.

"Ouch..." he picked it up and looked at it. It was the Holy Materia. "..." a sudden hope lit inside of him. He sat up and pressed the Materia between his palms. He started to pray. He prayed for Aeris to come back to him. The Materia glew green and then it faded. The earth had heard his prayers. He sat there, waiting for his love to return to him, but she never came. Sick of thinking, he got up and started out of the crater. He killed every monster he saw before thinking, plundered all of their Gils and continued on his way.

Some of the monsters he had never seen before, they didn't carry gils, they carried some strange blue and yellow coin. He shrugged his shoulders and continued his ascent out of the hellish pit. He stretched the wing that appeared on his back when he had beaten Sephiroth. "Hah..." he scoffed. "I killed the one winged angel, so I guess I get to be the one winged devil..." he crunched through the snow, and climbed back down Gaea's Cliff.

Didn't know why he climbed, but he did. He stopped for a rest at the old man's house, who had some gifts for him from his friends. One of them was a cape from Vincent. Cloud took it and fastened it to his shoulders. He shivered a bit and rubbed the cloak against his skin. It warmed his blood greatly. He made it all the way to the Icicle Inn. He bought a few items and continued on his way.

break-

Aeris watched as Cloud left the Icicle Inn. How she longed to be with him, but she couldn't go with him. The elders had strictly forbidden that, given the chaos that they had forseen. A force so powerful that not even the lifestream and Holy could stop it. If this was true, she had better wait until this blows over to be with Cloud.

She watched him knit his eyebrows in frusration whenever he looked at the Holy materia. She knew how he must have felt. She decided to leave Cloud, even though it pained her greatly, and the elders transported her to a small town. She walked into the nearest building to her, it was the Acessory Shop. She nearly fell out laughing when she saw who was running it. "Cid?" she said.

"Hi! Welcome to..." he turned around and did a double take. "What the &? Aeris is that you, honey?"

"Hi, Cid. Long time no see...and please...will you stop swearing?"

"Uh...yeah...sure...so how'd you get to come back to the world of the living?"

"Cloud used the Holy Materia given to him as a gift and wished me back. But I couldn't go to him...because something horrible is going to happen back home that even Holy and the lifestream can't stop."

"...Excuse me," came a deep voice from behind her.

"..." Aeris jumped a little, seeing as this man scared her.

"I'm sorry if I may have frightened you, Miss."

"My name is Aeris," she told the man.

"Aeris, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Cid. Will you come with me, please?"

Aeris looked at Cid, and he gave her a slight nod. So she went with this strange brown-haired man. "Wh-who are you?" she managed to say, breaking the hideous silence that had fell over them.

"My name is Squa—I mean...Leon."

"Leon...that's a nice name."

"Thank you." he held her gently, but yet firmly, by the wrist. It didn't hurt her, so she didn't complain. "...I...uh...I'm sorry for imposing on you like this...Miss Aeris."

"Please, just call me Aeris. I was never for that formal garbage."

"Ah...you're very spirited. Just like Yuffie said you were."

"She's here as well?"

"Yes, many people began appearing some time ago. Cid was the first, and then Yuffie. And now, you."

"..." Aeris said nothing and stared at her feet. Will Cloud come here as well? she thought.

break-

Cloud held onto his chest, he was trying to supress that hacking cough that plauged him. But he couldn't keep it at bay, he launched into what was one of his worst coughing fits since he lost Aeris and got Mako poisoned. He stuck the Ultima Weapon in the ground for a support, and just coughed and coughed. He couldn't get a breath in inbetween coughs, so his face was turning from red to blue by the time the fit finally subsided. He took in a deep breath, his chest rattled with pain.

"Ugh..." he fell over into the snow. The cold stuff felt good on his hot skin. He was just about to lose consciousness when some voice started calling to him.

"Cloud," it said. It was a voice that he thought he had forgotten.

"No..." he moaned.

"I can help you find her..."

"Stay outta my head, JENOVA!"

"Don't be that way...give in like Sephiroth did before you. You know that you wish to find her, and I can help you...I can take you to where she is."

"She's dead!" he yelled. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" he punched the snow.

"She's not dead...she's alive and well, she just didn't want to see you, that's all..."

"What...?"

"...that's right. I can take you to see her, just tell me 'yes' and it shall be done."

"All right," Cloud's chest heaved. "Do what you must, just take me to her, do you understand!" a man passed by, he looked at Cloud like some drunken bum and continued on his way. Cloud felt his pulse pick up, a sudden pain engulfing his body, he blacked out.

break-

"Hey, hey kid," he felt some one patting his cheek. "Wake up,"

"Urmph..." Cloud twitched his right hand.

"Hey, it moved, Phil..."

"I can see dat."

"Ahh..." Cloud sat up and popped his neck, he felt like he had been run over by a stampede of Chocobos. "...my head..." he opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings, he was lying on the steps of some collseum.

"Hey, kid, you okay?"

"...fine..." he muttered. The speaker was a creature that looked like a goat and a man. "...Oh no...did Hojo follow me here?"

"Ho...who?" asked the taller man standing next to him.

"No one...nevermind." they looked at Cloud like he was some psychotic madman.

"What's your name, kid?" asked the little goat-man.

"It's...Cloud...Cloud Strife..."

"My name's Philoctetes. Phil for short, and this," he pointed up to the man next to him. "Is Hercules."

"Hi," Hercules waved. Cloud merely gave him a glance that said 'hi to you too...'. "Your eyes are a funny color...is that natural?"

"No, they're not." Cloud saw his sword lying by the entrance to the lobby, he ran over to it, but just as he was about to pick it up, another all-to-familiar-voice made itself present.

"Hello, Strife."

"Geez! Sephiroth! Can't I ever..." Cloud stared at Sephiroth for a minute, then shivered.

"What's wrong, Strife?"

"No...thing..." he felt another coughing fit coming on. He didn't want Sephiroth to see him like this. But he couldn't hold this one in either. He dropped to a knee, clinging to his sword for blance and started to cough violently, Sephiroth started to walk forward, but Cloud held his hand out to stop him. He continued to cough for about 2 minutes, dropping to his other knee when it got too weak to support him. Cloud stopped coughing and took in a deep deep breath.

"Strife?"

"Look, I'm not in the mood, okay?" Cloud picked up his sword and headed for the door. "That stupid mother of yours promised me Aeris and I get stuck with you." he opened the door, when he looked to see where he was, there was nothing out there. "What the...?"

"Strife, the only way to get out of here is to fly." Sephiroth looked at him strangely. "Did you make a deal with Jenova?"

"..." Cloud stared at the ground, guilty for what he had done. "...yes...yes I did..."

Sephiroth shook his head. "You're going to be sorry over that one..."

"Shut-up, what do you know, eh?" Sephiroth said nothing and disappeared. As Cloud made his way inside the lobby, someone spoke from behind him.

"Cloud Strife, is it?"

"Look," he swung his sword around without even opening his eyes. "I told the gray-headed freak to leave me alone..."

"You don't want to point that at the Lord of the Underworld."

"What?" Cloud put his sword down.

"Cloud, baby, I've come to make a deal with ya. OH, by the way, the name is Hades, lord of the dead."

He spoke so fast that Cloud's head spun. "What's the deal."

"The deal is, you kill that guy over there, and I take you to this Aeris girl. Free of flight charges. Deal?"

"Is there a catch?" he asked, eager to do anything to see Aeris.

"Well...actually..." Hades took the young boy by the shoulder and they both disappeared.

break-

Aeris watched the rain trickle down the window. She felt so helpless sitting around with Leon and Yuffie, she wanted Cloud, and she wanted him now! "Yuffie," she said as she propped her knees up under her chin. "I want to see Cloud..."

"I know how bad you want to see him, but there's no way we even know if he's here or not." Although Yuffie was probably right, Aeris just knew that he was here, somewhere.

break-

Cloud suppressed that cough for as long as he could while Hades was talking to him, but he couldn't hold it in any longer, he let it go. His hand flew to his mouth, he coughed silently while listening to Hades, but then felt something warm and wet on his hand.

Blood.

"Hey, kid," Hades stopped talking. "You feelin' okay?"

Cloud finally stopped coughing, but his chest shook with every breath he took. "...fine..." he choked out.

"You really should do something about that cough, kid." Hades patted him on the shoulder, whereas Cloud shot him a look. "Oookkay, don't like to be touched, I'll keep that in mind."

Cloud slid down to the ground and wiped the sweat from his face, and the droplet of blood that had remained on his lips. "Okay, Cloudie, boy. Your up,"

Cloud stood up and looked out the bars. A little kid was standing up there. "Hey, the deal was—"

"I KNOW what the deal was, okay?" Hades flared red for a minute, the turned back to that slate blue. "But, you've got to get rid of the kid, to get to the big guy." Hades started to swing his fists around. "Like that goat-man says 'Let loose and have fun with it'." Cloud shook his head and walked out to challenge the little brat.

"Who're you?"

"My name is Cloud Strife,"

"I'm Sora."

"Hmph...I will not hold back on you, so prepare to taste defeat." Cloud held his sword in that all-too familiar postion, the fight was signaled to start. Cloud started to circle his enemy, the boy watched in immense curiosity. "Ha!" Cloud jabbed forward with his sword, narrowly missing the boy, who had rolled to the side to dodge his blow. The boy pulled out something rather similar to a key. Cloud didn't care what kind of weapon he had, just as long as he went down in a hurry. He yelled out again, but this time charged with speed that rivaled that of the gods. He jabbed again and again, lost in fury of the fight.

He felt his sword hit the boy, and the boy bounce backwards and hit the barrier wall. Cloud stopped his mad assault and then held his sword like a certain someone he had known a long time ago. "It is time to—" Cloud felt that cough chew at his lungs like a rabid dog, he gritted his teeth. "No, not now."

In the secret underground bleachers, Hades slapped a hand to his forehead. "That kid needs to go see a doctor..."

Cloud stumbled back a few steps, dropping his sword in the process. Both hands were covering his mouth, his shoulders were jerking very violently, and blood came running in streams. Sora ran forward and held his shoulders steady.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Cloud felt his consciouness slowly draining out of his pain-wracked body. He heard Sora yell something out, and then something came down on top of him, he remembered nothing more.

break-

_He saw someone running to him, the someone was a person that he had wished was with him at this moment. Aeris. She ran straight into his arms, crying._

_"What's wrong?" he ran his fingers through her hair._

_"He's...he's coming..."_

_"Who?" Cloud looked up to see a man with yellow eyes and long, silver hair standing in front of him. He looked a bit like Sephiroth, but nothing more than a bit. Aeris cringed. "Who are you?"_

_The man snickered, and then grabbed Aeris's arm, he pulled her out of Cloud's grip just as easily as if she was covered with butter._

_"Aeris!" Cloud reached out for her, but she disappeared. Just like...that time...that time...he had failed to protect her._

Cloud opened his eyes, he was lying in a bed, he didn't know where. What had happened to him? He couldn't move any part of his body, it hurt so bad.

"Are you awake now?" it was that young boy, Sora. Cloud didn't say anything, he just stared at the ceiling. "You got hurt pretty bad. You may not be able to move for a little while." he felt Sora put a wet cloth on his forehead. Cloud still said nothing. "You were ranting, yelling some name out over and over."

Cloud glanced askance at Sora, then continued to stare at the ceiling as if to say 'Mind your own business'. "What happened?" Cloud croaked out, and he wished that he hadn't of.

"Some big three-headed mutt crushed you under its right forepaw."

"How long have I been out?"

"Not long, at least a day."

Cloud realized who's dog crushed him. It was Cerebrus, and it belonged to no one other than Hades. He realized how much of a fool he'd been, to accept an offer like that. He felt so ashamed of himself. He raised himself up on his elbows, and to many protests from Sora, sat up. His shoulder felt like it was on fire, but he continued to move. The deal with Hades was over. He had to find some way to get to Aeris. He stood up and wobbled to the door, his sword was lying up against a stone coloum, he picked it up and walked out the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"I have something to do, and no injury, be it fatal or simple, will stop me." and with that, Sora saw Cloud no more.

It was that afternoon, when Sora was leaving, that he chanced upon Cloud sitting on the stone steps of the colloseum. "I though that you were leaving. What is it that you have to do?"

"I am searching for someone that I lost a long time ago." Cloud looked down at his feet. "Hades promised to help me if I defeated Hercules, but,"

"Hey, it's okay, everyone makes slip-ups."

"I got swallowed by the darkness, I tried to exploit the powers of darkness. But, it failed, and now, I am drowning in darkness and I cannot find the light."

"Well," Sora pointed at himself. "I'm searching too."

"Really? Are you searching for your light?" Cloud stood up and got so close to Sora's face that their noses nearly touched. Cloud scrutinized Sora's baby blue eyes with his own Mako blue ones. He moved away, and then reached in his pocket. "Take this, keep firm hold of it, and do not loose your light. Keep searching for what you lost," he placed something into Sora's palm and then closed his fingers around it, and with a swish of his cape, Cloud was gone.

TBC...

Okay. There it was...the hornedous ness. I have chapter two here...if you all want to read it...sweatdrop


	2. Chapter 2

The Story of Cloud

by: Alucard's Bane

Chapter Two:

Cloud's Sorrow and Aeris's Heart

He sat there and stared up into the starlit sky. It had been two months since the incident at the Colliseum, his body was nearly healed, except for that cough, but he hadn't had a fit in a long time. As he sat there, he felt someone come up and touch his shoulder."Couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah,"

"Worried about her again?"

"Yeah." Cloud turned to this well-known visitor.

"I didn't mean to kill her, you know," Sephiroth sat down next to Cloud, his gray hair looked like little silver rivers on the stone floor.

"I know," Cloud shook his head. "I could tell by the way that you greeted me that day," Cloud felt a sudden pang in his shoulder as he remembered what had happened. It still burned like a wildfire in his chest to think of how Hades used him like that. He suddenly felt a pair of eyes staring at him, he turned only to see Sephiroth hovering over him like a mother would a distraught child.

"You feeling okay?" Sephiroth asked as he arched an eyebrow.

"I'm fine, okay, just a little upset, that's all."

"Well, okay," Sephiroth stood up, his gloved hands hung loosely at his side. He turned away from Cloud. "I'm going to sleep for a while, if you need me, you know where I'll be." he walked back into the lobby.

Cloud sighed and lay his head up against one of the stone colloums. His head lolled from side to side as sleep overtook him. Phil watched from the lobby doors. "Poor guy, he's really got something heavy weighing him down, doesn't he?"

"Yes, he does, and it's partly my fault."

"How's that, big guy?"

"I'm the one that killed the girl that he's pining for."

"Oooh...that would have something to do with it."

Sephiroth shook his head. "I'm getting soft. That's not good, I've got to stop hanging around these guys so much," he continued muttering softly to himself as he walked off to bed. Phil looked at the exhausted Cloud one more time before he went off to bed as well.

break-

_Cloud felt a pair of cold hands cling to his hand, they felt like ice! Cloud shuddered and tried to make them let go, but they held onto him like a vice._

_You're mine, Cloud Strife_

_"What? Who are you? Let go of me!"_

_A sinister laugh echoed, and lightning flashed. Let you go the voice chuckled. How very amusing._

_Cloud felt several hands dart out and grab him, they were so cold! Cloud felt his eyes roll back in his head. I'll never let you go, boy. The darkness will never let you go...never..._

_That one word echoed in Cloud's ears. He felt like he was drowning, like a black, suffocating cloud had lowered itself onto him. He couldn't breathe, the hands were driving him mad, they wouldn't let him go, no matter how much he struggled..._

_never... echoed the voice._

_"Stop! Stop it! Let me go!"_

Cloud shot up, his eyes were wide with fear, and he was sweating. He could tell his heart wanted to jump out of his chest, so he put a hand over it to calm it a bit. He had somehow rolled out into the middle of the courtyard. He felt that insane feeling knawing at his lungs and chest again, but he supressed it. For the first time, probably in his entire life, he felt bitter tears sting at the corner of his eyes.

That nightmare, sure he had had others similar to it, but something about that one made him feel like a child that thinks a boogie-man is under its bed. He wrapped his arms around himself, and tried to restrain the bitter sobs to shoulder jerks, but a few escaped out of his mouth into the night air. And then it happened. He couldn't restrain them, the tears that he had held back ever since he was young, they all came flooding into that one moment, and that one moment, the most pituful cries were heard all throughout the colliseum.

break-

Aeris jerked her head to the side, and then raced to the window and threw it open. "Aeris?" Leon and Yuffie got up and ran to her side. "What's wrong?"

"He's crying," her voice was a soft as a whisper.

"Who's crying?"

"You can't hear him?" she asked. "He's crying,"

"Hear who?"

"Cloud, he's crying. He's upset about something."

Yuffie stepped back. "Whoa, I've never seen that man cry in my life, what makes you think that he'll—"

"Yuffie, please understand. This is not the same Cloud that we fought meteor with. Something happened to him. I can feel pain...lots of it. He's sad. I can feel it in my heart." she touched her chest with her hand.

break-

Cloud lay there, howling miserably in the courtyard. He just cried, it's all he knew to do at that one point, that dream had touched the one weak link in his emotional barrier. He never ever remembered crying like this...but that time that she...Aeris...

Cloud heard the oak doors open, and the clack of boots across the courtyard. The person was running. "Cloud!" it was Sephiroth. "Cloud, what's wrong!"

Cloud could barely talk through all his tears. "...it hurts..."

"What hurts?"

He let out a yell of pain. "...my heart hurts!" more tears came flooding down his cheeks.

"Calm down, Cloud, please." Sephiroth sat him up and rubbed his back. "It's gonna be all right, just calm down," he didn't know why Cloud was acting like this, it made no sense. His 'heart' ached? Sephiroth whispered soothing words in Cloud's ear, Cloud nodded his head in response. "Shh..." Sephiroth pushed the blonde hair out of Cloud's tear streaked face. "There, there," he whispered. He felt like he was talking to his own son, not a full grown man. "It's all right," Cloud nodded his head. He felt sleepy. Sephiroth started to rock him like a mother would a sick child. Cloud hiccuped once or twice, and then no other noise escaped his body but disturbed breaths. "What is going on here?" he muttered.

break-

Cloud awoke the next morning with a blanket covering him, he couldn't really remember what went on last night, all he remembered was Sephiroth calming him down, and then nothing much after that. His face was stiff from all the crying he did last night. It was still a little dark, but he decided to get out of the courtyard before some wandering soul took him for dead. It was then that a man with long, brown hair made his way over to him.

"Are you Cloud Strife?" he asked.

"Who wants to know?" Cloud glared suspiciously at the man.

"My name is Leon, and it would be in your best intrest to come with me."

Cloud decided to go with this 'Leon' character, Leon led him around the colloseum until they reached a very secluded spot. "What is it you want?"

"I have a couple of girls that want to see you." Leon stepped to the side to reveal a teenage Ninja and a woman in a pink dress that he thought to be long gone.

"A-Aeris?" Cloud stared at her in amazement, so she was alive.

"Oh, Cloud," she ran forward and put her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. "I missed you,"

Cloud was surprised by her actions, but soon found himself to be hugging her closer than life itself. He felt something wet and warm running down his cheeks. He was crying again. "Aeris..." he buried his face in her hair, it still smelled the same. "I missed you too,"

"Well," came a gruff voice from the corner. "If it ain't that spikey-headed weirdo." Cid Highwind came out of the shadows and put his hand on Cloud's shoulder. "How ya been, kid?"

"Cid," Cloud smiled through his tears. "It's been awhile."

"What about me?" huffed an impatient voice from the corner.

"And how could I forget Yuffie? Gosh, it's great to see you guys again." Cloud leaned down. "Escpecially you, Aeris," he whispered.

"How touching, a reunion of long lost friends." came a cold voice from the corner, Aeris cringed.

"Sephiroth?" yelled Cid and Yuffie, they jumped back in front of Cloud and Aeris. "You ain't gonna hurt her again, ya grey-haired freak!" growled Cid.

"Chill." he walked over to them, his eyes were colder than ever, but his voice was warm and friendly. "I'm not going to kill her again, I don't want to make Cloud even worse than he is now," Sephiroth smirked coolly as he saw Cloud's angry look.

"Sephiroth," he hissed. He hugged Aeris closer to him, as if to shield her from those words. "Don't—" Cloud felt it again, that feeling that chewed at his chest and lungs, and tickled his throat. He didn't want to let go of Aeris, but he had to. This one was by far the worst, he dropped down to his knees and started to cough violently. He kept teetering off balance, he was dizzy, and he couldn't help but to notice all of the blood that was dripping from his hand to the ground.

He felt Aeris kneel down beside him and pat his back, but he couldn't see anything but discolored shapes and the sounds came to him as muddled buzzes. He had to breathe, he needed that precious oxygen, he felt his forehead break out into a river of sweat. He finally stopped coughing, he could breathe, but it hurt. "Cloud?" Aeris was beside him. "Cloud? Can you hear me?"

"A...A...Aeris...?" he choked out.

"Cloud, don't scare me like that!"

"...sorry," he muttered.

"Hey, kid," he heard Cid. "You okay?"

"...I'm fine," Cloud stood up, but had to be balanced by Sephiroth and Leon to do so. Cloud's vision was blurring to some extent, and he did have a headache. "I can stand on my own," Cloud voice was but a whisper, but fierce. He wobbled a few feet away, and then he put his hand to his head, collapsed on the ground, and he slipped into unconsciouness

break-

"Cloud, please, wake up," Cloud couldn't move, every part of his body felt as if it weighed a ton. He felt something wet hit his cheek, but remained perfectly still.

"Aeris," he recognized that voice as Leon's. "Please, we have to go,"

"No!" she shouted. "I won't leave him! Not while he's sick like this!"

"Aeris, I understand how you feel," Cloud thought that Leon sounded as if he was trying to hold something back. "But, this may be the best way to help him,"

"But...but I can't." she broked down into horrid sobs. "He's waited for me all this time...he's like this because of me,"

Cloud sqeezed her hand, not hard, just a very very light one. She gasped and Leon knew what he wanted. "Aeris, he wants you to leave, he doesn't want to see you suffer, and he doesn't want you to see him suffering. He wants you to leave and he'll come to see you when he's ready."

Aeris felt Cloud sqeeze her hand again, but his face remained serene and emotionless. She nodded her head. "All right, I'll leave." Cloud felt Aeris's hand slip out of his. Then, he couldn't remember anything more.

break-

Cloud was floating through a dark abyss, he felt like he had been here for a very long time. So long that he thought that it was home. He heard people calling him, but they sounded so cold, far away, and unfamiliar. He lay there, not wanting to move, and a sound grew louder and louder until it filled his ears. It sounded like a woman moaning in pain, but he knew what it was.

break-

Sephiroth was sitting next to the futon that Cloud was lying on, watching intently for any movements that the boy might make. Sephiroth's eyes focused on his lips, they were moving, very slightly, but his voice was so light, that he couldn't hear what he was saying, so then Sephiroth moved over to Cloud and put his ear over Cloud's mouth.

"...planet's...crying..." his voice was like that of a small breeze. He repeated the same words over and over.

Sephiroth moved away from Cloud. "'Planet's crying'?" he muttered to himself. He got up and walked outside, he walked out to the middle of the courtyard, and then began to listen intently. The sound was only slight at first, but it got louder and louder. It finally got so loud that he feared that he would become deaf. He stopped listening to the planet's screams. Cloud could hear that in his dreams? He shook his head. "This is worth some investigating," he muttered. "But I will wait until Cloud wakes up." he walked back inside the lobby. Cloud was as still as the water before one throws a rock into it. He hated to try and wake him...but he'd been asleep for a long time, one would think that he had slipped into a coma.

"Cloud," Sephiroth shook him gently. "Wake up, Cloud." he wouldn't budge. What if he really was in a coma? Sephiroth tried every painful method known to man, but Cloud's face remained untouched. He looked so pitiful...had the coughing fit really have caused him to plunge straight into this comatose-like state? Or could it have been something else? Sephiroth was beginning to get extremely worried about this fragile man, he remebered how confused he had gotten when Sephiroth revealed the truth to him.

He shook these thoughts from his head, and stretched out his one wing on his back. He had been cursed with its presence ever since he was born, but it had just now decided to make an appearance. Sephiroth sat, leaned up against the wall, dozing off and on, when he heard Cloud's breathing intesify, like when one has been running too much. He got up and moved over to Cloud, listening to his heartbeat, and seeing how fast his pulse was going.

"...Momma..." Cloud muttered. "No!" he jerked around, Sephiroth watched in curiosity. "Don't leave me all alone!" Sephiroth saw tears start to run down Cloud's cheeks. His mother? Why was he...Sephiroth looked away from Cloud as those painful memories came flooding back to him. That's right, he had killed Cloud's mother...when he was sixteen, Sephiroth was twenty-five.

It was that night that he went insane and burned down the village, he had killed Cloud's mother with his own two hands. He had taken two people out of Cloud's life, for which he cared dearly. The first was his mother, and the second was that Cetra girl, Aeris. Sephiroth's mind slowly drifted back to the present, he couldn't bear to hear Cloud yell out like that, it hurt much more than his ears.

A few seconds later, Cloud was back to that serene state. He must be having dreams of his own past, Sephiroth thought. Sephiroth felt that feeling come back after he thought he had buried it forever, that insane desire he had when JENOVA had full control of his body. It burned within him like a wildfire, and it was then, that Sephiroth stood up, walked out of the lobby into the arena, and after that, he was never seen again.

break-

Cloud woke up the following morning, and, with Leon's help, was up and around within a few hours. Cloud was trying to get his legs to obey what he wanted then to do, after a few tries, they would obey and consent to whatever he desired. He was in top condition by the time evening rolled around, he could eat, talk, walk, and do a vast assortment of things as if he had never been asleep for a month. Cloud sat down on the steps, and Leon came out to join him by bringing a few lunches and some sake. "How's Aeris?" Cloud looked his clawed hand over.

"She's fine." Leon took a swig of sake and took a bite out of a rice ball. "She wishes you well." Leon ate in silence for a while before speaking again. "You need to eat something, Cloud. It'll make you feel better."

Cloud shook his head. "Nothing is going to make me feel better." Cloud let out a small cough.

Leon took a rice ball out of the box, took his hand, squeezed Cloud's jaws open, and stuffed the rice ball in to his mouth, then closed his mouth, and made him chew and swallow. Leon laughed a little bit and then did the same with a small glass of sake. Cloud didn't seem to mind being treated like a little baby, apparently, he had other things...or people...on his mind. He never was one for drinking sake, so he started to feel intoxicated around his second glass.

"Ahh...you miss her don't you?"

"Sure, who wouldn't miss a pretty girl like that, huh?" Cloud hiccuped loudly.

Leon smiled, he knew he could get Cloud to open up if he got him drunk. "She wanted me to ask you if you loved her."

Cloud looked down at his feet. "'Course I do!" he looked up at Leon and smiled. "Who couldn't love her?"

"Why do you love her?"

"Well..." Cloud thought for a minute. "...because I just do!"

Leon smilied. "I was like you before you met Aeris. Didn't want anything to do with anybody...and then, I met her. Rinoa," Leon stared down at the ground. "She turned my whole world upside down, and then..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Leon," Cloud bit his lip.

"We got married, and then..she..." Cloud looked down at Leon's fingers, there were two rings, a wedding band, and something with a lion head on it. "She died, a long time ago, I haven't had the guts to love anyone since."

"I understand how you're feeling, heart broken and alone," Cloud sounded like he had sobered up quite a bit. "It hurts. Right here," Cloud pointed to his chest. "It's a feeling that some will never know, and I hope that they won't. I felt so alone when I lost her...she was my life, ever since I had met her, I didn't want to be away from her, even for a second. And, in the blink of an eye, my life was shattered. I wanted to die. I couldn't save her, the scene played over and over again in my head. It hurt so much. But, people like Yuffie and Cid, helped me out. They didn't want me to see me throw my life away.That's why you're so recluse, Leon thought. Even after all this time, you're afraid it will happen to you again."

Leon stared at Cloud, a kind look in his honey brown eyes. _"I'm the exact same way. Yes, it did hurt, yes, I rebuilt after all those years of hating myself, and I've moved on. But you haven't...that's why you're so sick. And you know that. That's why you didn't want to see her just yet. You want to get over all of these bad things that happened in your life. Yuffie told me that you used to be so cheerful and talkative, that she didn't know what had happened to you. But I knew what it was the minute you saw Aeris. Sorrow. And Aeris can feel your pain through her heart, and that's what makes her so special. We have to protect her now, until you recover. We have to keep her away from Ansem."_

"Hey, Leon," Cloud was waving his hand in front of his face. Leon was snapped out of his thoughtful state. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

break-

Cloud was doing great, another tourney was being held, and Cloud heard Sora was going to participate, so he entered as the fourth seed. Hercules was to be the first seed. He was more than happy to know that he wouldn't be expected to fight the big man. Sora was the one he was worried about.

"Are you ready, Cloud?" Phil came up to him as he was polishing his sword.

"What? He's to the fourth all ready? Wow..." Cloud got up and walked into the stadium, trying to subdue the coughing fit he felt in his chest. He was doing better, but that didn't mean that he was all the way healed. He stepped into the arena, and waited on Sora.

"Now, Sora, go easy on him, he's better, but try not to make him get too excited."

"All right, Leon, I will." the young boy stepped into the arena, as the barried wooshed around them.

"I won't go too hard on ya, kid..." he sputtered a little as the fit let out a monstrous roar in his lungs.

"Cloud, are you sure you want to do this?"

"As sure as I'll ever be..." he positioned his sword, waited a moment then charged. Only moments later, a battered and worn Cloud lean against the wall, the coughing fit knawing viciously at his lungs.

"Cloud?" Sora withdrew his Keyblade and went over to him. "You okay? Did I push too hard?"

"No," he breathed in deeply as sweat rolled down his face. "Ya did good, kid...keep it up, you may be able to beat Sephiroth one day..." he passed out as he muttered those last words.

end

okay...that's all I have written...yeah..it's stinks...I know...just pretend that you like it. Again, this was written a looooooooooooong time ago, before i had internet and before I had ever heard of Dreadnot, Thess, Kelles, and CiardiaRois...so that's why it's soo horrible, those guys help a lot with my writing style.


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